Seals or seal devices are used in a variety of applications for sealing between components. These can be components that are movable relative to one another, for example rings of a bearing, or a housing and a shaft, or components that are not movable relative to one another. The fluid being sealed can be air or another gas, or it can be a liquid, such as a lubricant, a lubricating oil, a lubricating liquid, or a lubricating grease. In addition, it is often desirable to detect a characteristic or a state parameter of a fluid behind a seal, such as its temperature and/or pressure.
In the bearing field, for example, it is sometimes possible to draw conclusions about friction levels or the operating state of a bearing by measuring a temperature and/or pressure in the bearing, that is, in the fluid surrounding the bearing elements. This is conventionally accomplished by attaching or disposing a temperature sensor, for example, a thermocouple or a pressure sensor, in a bearing interior. In order to place the corresponding sensor in the bearing assembly and have access to signals produced by the sensor, bores and/or groves may be provided in a non-rotating bearing component, for example, a bearing ring, to make attachment of the temperature sensor or of the pressure sensor possible. However, under certain unfavorable circumstances the bores and/or the grooves can weaken the component in which the bore or grooves are formed. A structural strength of the component may thereby be reduced. Of course the cost of forming any required bores and/or grooves in the (usually hardened) bearing rings is also not negligible. Under certain circumstances this problem can also occur with other components sealed with respect to one another and between which a fluid is located whose temperature and/or pressure is to be determined.